I'll Come For You
by cherryade
Summary: Chin pushes Kono away just as she's about to get stabbed and takes the knife for her. Semi-teamfic that deals with our favorite pair of cousins and Chin's problems with his family and HPD. No character deaths. Whump.
1. Chapter 1

Chin rapped on the doorframe with his knuckles causing Kono to jump to alertness and glare balefully at her cousin.

"Don't do that!" Kono snapped. She grabbed her mug and gulped down the remnants of her cold coffee, grimacing at the taste. Slamming it on the table with a disgusted groan, she rubbed her tired eyes. Chin's lips quirked in amusement.

"I think it's time you headed home," Chin said as he stepped forward towards her desk. He gently pried the pen she had been using to fill in the paperwork out of her fingers, capped it and dropped it into the pen holder on her table. "We've been awake for the past 24 hours, the paperwork can wait."

"He's right," came another voice from the door. Steve had snuck up on the two unsuspecting cousins and was leaning on the doorframe. Kono snorted in a rather un-ladylike manner and leaned back against her chair, crossing her arms,

"You're only saying that because Danny's doing your paperwork for you after you completely messed it up the last time round," Kono replied. Steve grinned, his tired features lighting up.

"True, but payback's a bitch. No one told him to leave malasada crumbs all over my kitchen floor," he said. "Besides, Danny's a big boy. He'll stop when he's reached his limit." He paused as he surveyed her. "You, however, have reached your limit. I want you packed up and ready to leave in ten minutes." With that, he turned and disappeared into his office.

Kono sighed and reached for the pen Chin had took from her but was thwarted by Chin as he batted her hand away.

"Steve's right," Chin said. "I'll go rescue Danny once I'm sure you're done. Then I'll walk you to your car."

"I don't need a babysitter, Chin," Kono snapped. "I'm not tired." She struggled to stifle a yawn. Chin raised an eyebrow.

"I can see that you're not tired at all," he deadpanned. He crossed his arms and looked at her pointedly. Kono knew that she wouldn't be completing her paperwork today, not if her overprotective cousin could help it.

"What about you then?" Kono replied defiantly. "You going home?"

"Nah, I've still got some work to do."

Kono's eyes narrowed as she sorted out the sheaves of paper before her and stacked them neatly on her desk. "We've been awake for the past 24 hours, Chin. The paperwork can wait," Kono said, throwing Chin's words right back at him. Chin smiled ruefully. He ran a hand through his dark hair, exhaustion showing briefly on his features before he schooled his expression back into one of concern.

"Fine," Chin said reluctantly. "I'll leave with you. You pack up. I'll go save Danny before he kills himself."

"Or Steve," Kono replied with a laugh. "Sure thing, cuz."

Chin offered her an affectionate smile and disappeared out the door. When she was younger, he always ruffled her hair fondly when he smiled at her like that. She suddenly found herself missing those times. It was a simpler life where she didn't have to worry about bastards like Rodney Mason who kidnapped and sold girls to brothels for a living. With a groan, Kono dropped her head into her hands.

As much as she enjoyed snapping the handcuffs on the creep back at the shipyard where they had ambushed him, she didn't think she would ever forget the fear she could see in the eyes of each and every one of the girls they had pulled from the container. It had been a long and tough case. Mason had been a pro at hiding his trail and it took all of Five-0's considerable skill to track down the collection point and lay the ambush. After 24 hours of no sleep and an unhealthy amount of coffee, she was hellishly tired and ready to call it a day.

Chin cleared his throat and Kono was jerked out of her thoughts once again.

"I thought I said pack up?" Chin was leaning on the doorframe, his arms folded across his chest as he stared at her pointedly. Kono sighed, resisting the childish urge to stick her tongue out at her older cousin the way she used to when she was little. She could feel the exhaustion weighing her down now that she was getting ready to leave. Chin crossed the distance between the door and her table.

Picking up the rock which served as a paperweight, he dropped it on the stack of documents she placed on the table previously. Kono smiled her thanks as she dragged herself off the chair and tossed her stuff haphazardly into her bag. When she reached for her car keys, Chin placed a hand on her arm and she looked up, startled.

"Maybe you shouldn't drive," Chin said softly. Kono raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not that tired." Chin's eyes narrowed as he picked the keys from the table and pocketed them.

"Hey!" Kono protested as she tried to snatch them back.

"I'll drive you home then return you your keys. You're too tired to be driving. I'll come pick you up tomorrow morning."

Kono scowled.

"Come on, cuz, I can drive myself home fine. You spent the same amount of time on the case as I did and you're gonna be driving."

Chin sighed.

"You probably don't realise how tired you are, Kono. You can barely keep your eyes open."

Kono rubbed her gritty eyes and tried to think past the haze of exhaustion.

"You must be tired too," she replied.

"Yeah, I am but I've had more experience pulling 24 hour shifts than you do. Until you're able to tell when you're too exhausted to continue, I'll be doing it for you. Come on, Steve and Danny are already packing up."

Kono sighed. She knew she'd lost the battle. Reluctantly, she shouldered her bag and they both stepped out of Five-0's headquarters, calling their goodbyes to Steve and Danny who were too busy bickering over paperwork to do more than wave through the glass separating Danny's office from the main room.

"So are you going to Aunt Kiki's birthday party next Saturday?" Kono asked conversationally as they strolled towards Chin's car. The sun was setting in a brilliant blaze of colors that Kono had seen too many times to be truly dazzled by. Chin stopped walking as he rummaged in his bag for his keys.

"No, I'm not going," he replied quietly, fishing them out of the front pocket and fiddling with them. "I don't think they want to see me there."

Kono's expression hardened.

"Aunt Kiki invited you," Kono said, turning to stand in front of him. "It's her birthday party, she can choose whoever she wants to invite. You don't have to let their stupid prejudice dictate your life, cuz."

Chin said nothing.

A familiar-looking man appeared from his crouched position behind a parked car, sunlight glinting off the knife in his hand.

Chin froze as the man charged soundlessly forward, the knife positioned to stab Kono in the back. His heart caught in his throat as the world seemed to slow. Without a second thought, he shoved Kono out of the way. He barely registered her shocked expression or her surprised gasp before a stunning burst of liquid fire exploded in his gut and he collapsed to his knees, barely able to keep the strangled yelp from escaping his lips.

The man's eyes widened, a stunned look of surprise on his face. He'd meant to stab the girl. A wild glint entered his eyes as a grin stretched across his face. Ah, what did it matter?

Kono pushed herself off the floor and darted towards him, aiming to tackle him to the ground. She wrestled him to the floor pinning him down just as Steve and Danny came out of HQ. Kono could still hear them bickering about something. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins and she felt numb with shock and fear.

"Steve!" Kono shouted. "Danny!"

The duo turned towards the noise. Stunned looks of disbelief flashed across their faces and were quickly overtaken by purpose. Both of them ran forward, Danny pulling out his cell phone and dialing for an ambulance, the phone pressed to his ear as he dropped to his knees beside Chin who had rolled onto his back on the baked asphalt. Kono jumped off the assailant the moment Steve arrived to take over and rushed to Chin's side, her heart hammering in her chest. Her exhaustion had fled ages ago, the attack leaving her with a disturbing clarity which meant that she would remember everything that happened in vivid high definition for the rest of her life. She could see the blood pulsing out of the wound and pooling beneath her cousin. She dropped to her knees beside him as Danny screamed into the phone, begging the paramedics to please hurry up.

Steve pulled out his handcuffs and snapped them on the assailant. For a moment, he was torn between staying with Chin and throwing the assailant in a holding cell.

"Go," Chin rasped out between breaths, his hands curling reflexively into fists as he tried to battle the pain that radiated from the knife sticking out of his torso. Kono pulled her cousin's head into her lap and cradled his chin as he groaned. Steve nodded, unable to speak. He manhandled the assailant towards the holding cells.

"Hang in there, cuz," Kono whispered as Chin panted, his breaths coming out in shallow bursts. His eyes were closed, his jaw clenched shut as he tried to stifle the groans that were working their way up his throat. Sweat beaded his forehead and Kono wiped them away tenderly with the heel of her palm. A bone-deep fear burned its way through her as she continued whispering to him, urging him to just hold on.

A loud wailing siren announced the arrival of the ambulance. Danny roughly shoved his phone into his pocket and placed a hand on Chin's shoulder.

"Hang on, Chin, EMT's almost here," he said, tone tense.

He looked up and caught Kono's eye, seeing the naked fear displayed in their depths. Chin had turned an unhealthy shade of grey and the pool of blood beneath him was growing. With a rattling gasp, he fell limp. The doors of the ambulance banged opened just as it pulled into the parking lot, paramedics jumping off with kits in their hands. Danny had to forcibly drag Kono away as they worked to stabilize Chin for transport. Danny wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his chest.

"Please, Danny," Kono muttered as she fought him. "Please, brah, he needs me."

"You have to let the paramedics do their job," Danny said, struggling to hold the taller woman back. He didn't want to hurt her but the way she was taller than he and the way she was thrashing against him was threatening to unbalance them both and send them sprawling to the ground. Just then, Steve sprinted out the HQ doors. He reached them and pulled Kono from a grateful Danny's grasp before wrapping his arms around her and pinning her against him.

"Calm down," he said, trying to stop his frantic teammate from hampering the paramedic's progress. They had Chin prepped for transport and was moving him towards the ambulance.

"No!" Kono cried. "I want to go with him!" She fought against Steve who was holding her in a tight grip. Danny, who'd been conversing with the driver of the ambulance, returned. They exchanged helpless looks as the ambulance doors slammed shut and it peeled out of the car park, sirens wailing.

"C'mon," Danny said as Steve struggled with Kono who was still fighting against him. "I'll drive."

Steve nodded.

"Kono!" he shouted in an attempt to get Kono's attention. Kono immediately stopped fighting, her body falling limp in his arms. Both Steve and Danny looked at each other in alarm.

"He took that knife for me," Kono whispered softly. "Why was he so stupid?"

Tears glimmered in her eyes as she steadied herself. She wrapped her arms around Steve and began to cry, her exhaustion and fear releasing a floodgate of emotions that she would normally have been able to control with ease if she were more well-rested.

Steve gently guided her to the Camaro and they piled in, Danny taking the wheel while Steve sat in the back with an arm wrapped around Kono. Without saying a word, Danny flipped on the sirens and floored it all the way to the hospital.

**I will be posting a new chapter once every four days (:**

**The title of this story is taken from the song I'll Come For You by Nickelback and I think it's quite an apt song to describe how this story will go. This is my first multi-chaptered story out of the Harry Potter fandom so I do hope you'll like it.**

**Thank you for reading! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**I forgot to mention in the previous chapter that this story is set somewhere in the middle of season 1.**

It had been six hours since they'd pulled up at the ER, Kono leaping out of the car the moment Danny stopped it, leaving Steve to chase after her while Danny parked.

It had been an hour since the ER doctor had come out with a zip lock bag containing a bloody knife and a prognosis of cautious optimism.

Kono's knees had buckled at the sight of the knife, the blade slick with Chin's blood, and it was only through the combined help of Danny and Steve that she was able to stay on her feet to listen to the rest of what the doctor had to say.

Chin had been bleeding internally and had lost a lot of blood. He was brought in just in time. If he survived the night, he'd live, barring complications. He was a lucky man. The words were delivered by a sympathetic doctor who looked more tired than either of them. Kono didn't see his face nor his fatigue. All she could see was the bright redness that sullied his scrubs.

Now in the quiet of the ICU, Kono watched the steady rise and fall of her cousin's chest with a wretchedness and fear that started from deep within her and made her stomach churn. She was even more tired than before but she couldn't seem to fall asleep. She didn't want to. Tears burned in her eyes as she took in the sight of her cousin once again.

He was attached to various monitors, different tubes sneaking here and there. The constant steady beeping of the heart monitor reassured Kono that he was alive but didn't do anything to assuage the fear that it would stop at any moment. A thick white dressing was wrapped around his bare torso. Kono closed her eyes and tried to muffle the sob that was threatening to escape her lips. She knew that if she cried, she would never stop. She leaned back against the hard back of the chair she was in and pulled her knees to her chest, hugging them to herself.

"Please be alright," she said softly. "Please, cuz."

There was no response.

* * *

><p>Steve and Danny were watching the man cuffed to the only chair in the bare holding cell, arms folded. The man looked up at the both of them with polite curiosity, a mad gleam in his eye. He grinned as both officers continued to stare at him, neither saying a word.<p>

Danny, who'd always had something to say whether he was angry or not, was, for once, speechless. He knew that if he opened his mouth to speak, he would lose control and HPD would have to book him for murder and the man in front of him would be getting off the hook easy. Danny wanted him to suffer for what he did, to rot in a jail cell for as long as he could possibly wrangle out of the judge. So Danny stayed silent, his jaw clenched so tight he thought it would crack.

Steve was thinking up of violent ways to waste the man seated before him who was smiling like the idiot he was. This man was stupid for having picked the wrong group of people to mess around with. Steve McGarrett didn't have many people he trusted and the three people he knew he could always count on were the three other members of Five-0. He wanted the bastard who had messed with his team, his family, to learn the hard way that it wasn't a smart thing to do but he also wanted the charges to stick. So Steve kept his mouth shut and continued to watch the man in the chair.

"You're a dumbass, you know that?" Danny finally snapped, breaking the silence. His voice was tight with barely controlled fury. "You're a real dumbass. Of all places you choose to let your little revenge plot unfold, you choose Five-0's parking lot."

Steve picked up the file on the table before the man and flipped it to the appropriate page.

"Rick Mason," he said, reading off the file. His tone was deceptively calm, "Twin brother to Rodney Mason." He snapped the file shut and looked up to glare at the man. "Please explain."

The grin slid off Rick's face as his features contorted into one of utter rage.

"That stupid bitch," he snarled, tugging agitatedly on the handcuffs, "snapped my brother in cuffs. He'll probably spend the next twenty years rotting in jail and it's all her fault."

"Has it ever occurred to you that your brother's just stupid enough to think he'd get away?" Danny snapped. Rick growled as he pulled viciously at his restraints. If he weren't attached to the chair which was attached to the floor, he would've pummelled Danny to pulp.

"Don't you dare talk about my brother like that, you son of a bitch. Don't. You. Dare. It's that stupid bitch's fault and she had to pay. I wanted her to pay. Wasn't my fault the other guy shoved her away and took the knife. I was going to get away with it too if-"

"If Kono didn't kick your ass?" Steve interrupted. Rick scowled. Steve leaned forward, pasting what Danny sometimes referred to as the SEAL Glare of Death on his face. "You're going away for a very, very long time," Steve growled softly. Rick visibly paled. "And you won't be seeing your brother for a very, very long time either. I will personally make sure of that."

He turned towards Danny.

"Book 'im, Danno," he rapped out. Danny smirked.

"With pleasure."

* * *

><p>Steve sat in his office, head in his hands as Danny strolled in from the main room. The HPD officers had arrived and taken Mason away, kicking and screaming to the squad car that was sitting in the parking lot.<p>

It was two in the morning.

Danny sighed as he plopped down on the chair before Steve's table and dropped his head in his hands. Both men stayed in that position for awhile, neither speaking as they tried to process the events of the day.

"Let's go," Steve said after a few minutes. Danny looked up to find Steve staring at him. Danny ran a hand through his blonde hair and sighed.

"Okay," he replied, tossing the Camaro's keys to Steve. The image of the knife sticking out of Chin's body kept popping up at random moments, catching him unawares. The thought of all the blood he'd lost made him sick. If he drove, he'd probably wrap the Camaro around a palm tree and Five-0 would be three members down instead of just one.

Steve grabbed the keys with his well-honed reflexes, stood up and strode out the door. After a beat, Danny joined him.

* * *

><p>"My name is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett," Steve said, slapping on his 'charm the girls' face and hoping it would work. "This is my partner Detective Danny Williams. We're with Five-0 and-"<p>

"I'm sorry, Commander," the nurse on duty interrupted as she looked at them sympathetically. "Visiting hours are over. Please come back tomorrow."

Steve's fragile facade crumbled and his face took on a stony expression that usually meant that it was time for Danny to take cover and hide behind anything that remotely resembled shelter and pray that he wouldn't get hit by flying shrapnel.

"Please," Danny interjected before Steve could say anything and completely ruin their plans to spend the night watching over their fallen comrade. "We need to see him. It's not like we're going to kidnap him and run out of this place."

"I understand," the nurse replied and she actually looked like she did. "We get law enforcement in here once in awhile and although I don't know what it feels like to watch someone you care about get injured that way, I understand your need to see your teammate. However, visiting hours are implemented for a reason. We need to let the patients get enough rest so that they can recover faster. I'm sure you understand."

Steve's jaw was locked and his fists clenched by his side, his steely glare trained on the lady who was just doing her job. To her credit, she stood her ground, meeting Steve's glare straight on. Danny felt his own irritation and frustration swell and he desperately tried to cram the rant that was building in his chest back down his throat. He glared (unfairly, he knew, but he didn't care) at the nurse and she seemed to wilt a bit under the combined ire of the two men.

"It's okay, Ruth," came a female voice from behind them causing both Steve and Danny to whip around simultaneously. They came face to face with a tired-looking doctor with dark hair.

"Doctor," Ruth greeted quietly, her relief evident, and went back to her work. The last thing she wanted was to have to call in Security on exhausted law enforcement officers who just wanted to see with their own eyes that their teammate was okay. Steve's jaw relaxed, but his clenched fists did not as the doctor beckoned for them to follow her. They fell into step next to her as she led them towards the ICU.

"I'm Malia," she said, introducing herself. "I'm Chin Ho's-"

She faltered, suddenly unsure of herself. Steve and Danny exchanged glances.

"I'm Chin Ho's friend," she said, speaking softly as they walked past the first of the hospital wards. "You can stay as long as you want. Kono's been here for hours already."

"Not gonna kick us out, doc?" Danny asked skeptically, his volume matching hers so as to not disturb the sleeping patients. Malia smiled wryly and shook her head.

"What's the use? You're going to find ways to get in here anyway and probably get yourself thrown out by Security. Besides, Chin…"

She trailed off, biting her lip as she looked pointedly away from Steve and Danny.

"Chin hasn't got many people wanting to see him."

"Yeah," Steve said quietly. "We know."

Suddenly stopping, Malia faced them and gestured to the room behind them.

"He's in there," she said, her expression suddenly impassive. "He's still unconscious and will be until daylight at least."

With that, she turned and walked back down the corridor they came from, leaving Steve and Danny standing there, watching her retreating back. They glanced at each other before glancing through the open door.

Kono was curled up in a hard-backed hospital chair, one hand wrapped around Chin's as she slept. Her eyes were red-rimmed and she looked utterly exhausted.

They shifted their gazes to the pale figure lying in the hospital bed, looking more dead than alive. If not for the steady muted beeping of the heart monitor, anyone who saw him would have thought he was dead.

Steve suppressed a shudder as he watched the heart monitor track Chin's heartbeat, reassuring him that he was alive. Chin had been his father's partner, someone his father trusted with his life. Now Chin was his teammate and was someone Steve trusted with his life. He had seen much carnage in his life as a SEAL, seen his people gunned down, lives snuffed out without warning and yet, Chin's injury cut him deeper than any of those. Chin had become part of his family the way the SEALs he'd trained and fought with never were and it was hard to watch a family member fall, especially when he had so little left already.

Danny clenched his fists and looked pointedly away, as if the action could erase the carnage he saw in his mind. When he looked in, he didn't see the stark white bandages or the medical machinery. What he saw was the blood and the handle of the knife sticking out of flesh like a tombstone sticking out of the ground. He could almost feel the asphalt radiating heat, smell the metallic stench of blood in his nostrils. There weren't many people he could call friends let alone family on this pineapple-infested hellhole and if he were to lose any of them...

Both men inhaled deeply before taking a step into the room.

**Thank you for reading! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

Kono started awake as a hand descended upon her shoulder.

For one terrifying moment, her brain screamed that something was wrong, that the hand she felt on her shoulder was one that was pulling her away from her cousin so that they could perform some form of life-saving procedure. She shot out of the chair, sending it skidding backwards and into a startled Danny.

"Hey, hey," Danny soothed as Kono stared at Chin, trying to calm her racing heart. Not dead. Alive. "It's just me, babe. Danny."

Steve stood at the foot of Chin's bed, watching her as Kono's ragged breathing evened out.

"Sorry," Kono said sheepishly as she turned to face Steve. Danny had disappeared out the door.

"You're still here," Steve said. He crossed his arms and took in her worn appearance. She looked like she dearly needed to find a bed and crash for three days. Kono's posture became defensive.

"Yeah, and before either you or Danny even try, I'm not leaving."

Steve's lips quirked into a smile as Danny returned, a chair tucked under each arm Steve stepped towards him and snagged one, placing it at the foot of the bed.

"We're not going to, Kono," Steve said. He settled himself into the chair. Danny pulled his chair up and took his place opposite Kono, offering her a small smile. Kono looked at the two men who had become brothers to her in the relatively short period of time she had been at Five-0. They shuffled awkwardly, trying to get themselves as comfortable as possible in the hard-backed chairs as they settled in for their vigil.

"Mahalo," Kono whispered then turned back to keep watch over Chin.

A few hours later, it was close to noon and shafts of light were peeking in through the blinds. The hospital was livelier than it was in the wee hours of the morning as visitors streamed in from the entrances. All four members of the Five-0 taskforce were asleep, one more unconscious than the rest. The trio had finally succumbed to their exhaustion, none of them stirring as doctors and nurses came and went throughout the night, checking on the silent figure in the bed.

Kono's legs were stretched out, her legs bent slightly in a position that wouldn't make her want to rip her knees off the moment she got up because of the old injury that took her off pro surfing for good. Steve had his long legs outstretched, his arms folded across his chest and his head tipped back. Danny's legs were tucked beneath the chair, his arms wrapped around himself as his head nodded against his chest.

Danny was the first to wake up.

He came to with a groan, his left knee screeching in pain from being kept in a bent position for so long. Gingerly, he straightened the limb, his eyes watering as bolts of pain lanced up his thigh and down his shin. He hissed as his knee popped and pain exploded in the joint.

Steve jerked awake, blinking owlishly. He glanced at Chin before turning his gaze to Danny, the latter of which was clutching his knee with a pained grimace. In a heartbeat, Steve was kneeling on the floor by his side, his hand gripping onto the back of the chair.

"What's wrong?" he demanded. Kono jumped awake at Steve's voice. She blinked blearily before focusing on Steve and Danny. She stood up immediately, wincing as her back popped, and crossed the distance between them.

"I'm fine," Danny replied. The pain was ebbing slowly into a dull ache that he could handle. The cane would probably have to make a reappearance for the day and after that, he'd be as right as rain. "My knee doesn't quite agree with me sleeping in that position."

"Only you can injure your knee while you're asleep," Steve griped as he stood up and moved towards the door.

"Where're you going, I said I was fine," Danny snapped.

"Fine, my ass. I'm going to go get a doctor while you sit there and not move."

Danny scowled. He stood up, ignoring the spike in the ache that settled as soon as he shifted his weight to his right leg. He hobbled towards Steve and poked him in the chest.

"I'll move when I feel like moving, _Commander. _Thank you for your concern but I'll be fine. Now sit your ass back in that chair."

"Sit down, _Detective_."

For the first time since Chin landed in the hospital, Kono grinned. They were grown men but they bickered like children.

"Okay, kids, let's compromise. Danny, sit down. Trust me, brah, I know how much that knee hurts," Kono said, trying for the voice of reason that was so often Chin's. Danny complied, muttering angrily about overbearing partners with major control issues.

"Steve, Danny's not going to die because of his knee. All the doctor's going to do is to tell him to take the painkillers I'm sure he's carrying and ice the joint. So Steve, could you go get him some ice?"

Steve's jaw clenched and he nodded jerkily. He pointed a finger at Danny's direction and snapped, "Don't move." Danny scowled and prepared himself for a rant that would shut the man up.

"Nice one, cuz," a rough voice whispered from the direction of the bed. All three of them froze.

"Chin?" Kono whispered as she turned towards him. She took a few tentative steps forward and fell into the chair she vacated, her hand gripping Chin's. Steve moved to stand next to Danny who had forgotten all about his bad knee.

"Hey," he rasped. He tried to push himself up with his hands and winced.

"Easy there, Chin," Steve said as Danny reached over and pushed the call button.

"How're you feeling?" Kono asked. She tightened her grip around Chin's hand and looked at him anxiously. Chin's eyes slid shut before opening again and he tightened his hand briefly around Kono's.

"Like my hand's gonna fall off."

His lips quirked into a smile, the same affectionate smile he gave her in the office. It felt like year's ago. Kono's heart leapt to her throat as the past few hours crashed down on her, all the fear, guilt and exhaustion threatening to unbalance her. Chin's expression suddenly became anxious. Ignoring the stabbing ache in his abdomen, he reached up with a trembling hand to ruffle her hair.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

She fell across his chest with a gasp, careful not to aggravate his wound as she sobbed, her emotions finally getting the better of her. Chin began rubbing soothing circles in her back the way he used to when she cried as a kid.

Chin's doctor chose that moment to enter. Danny stood up to stand beside Steve in order to give him space to work. The doctor paused for a moment at the display then walked up to the bed, checking the monitors and nodding in satisfaction.

"Nice to see you awake, Mr. Kelly," he said. Chin nodded awkwardly and looked down helplessly at Kono.

Danny stepped forward and gently pried Kono away from her cousin, pulling her into his arms. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her cheeks were flushed as she took a step back, trying to regain her composure. The doctor nodded his thanks and moved forward to check on Chin.

"S-sorry," Kono stuttered as she wiped at her eyes. Steve appeared beside her with a packet of tissues that seemed to have materialized out of nowhere.

"It's like you carry around a frigging warehouse in your cargo pants," Danny remarked, hoping that it would at least bring a smile to Kono's face.

"Then why would I be wearing a pair of pants with so many pockets?" Steve shot back, catching on to what Danny was trying to do.

Kono hiccoughed and smirked as she wiped her eyes and shoved the tissue in her jeans pocket. Their act was transparent but she was grateful for their attempt at making her feel better.

"How'm I supposed to know? Your brain doesn't function the same way as us our normal human brains."

Danny turned towards Kono as Steve snorted. "You okay?" he asked gently. Kono nodded, a faint blush creeping across her face. She might be the rookie but she didn't have to act like one too.

"Hey, it's okay," Danny said, a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. She gave him a small smile.

"So how is he, doc?" Steve asked just as the doctor turned to face them.

"He's doing great," he replied with a smile. "We'll keep him here for a couple more hours then transfer him to a normal room. He should be out of here in about a week."

Chin groaned. "Not earlier?" he asked. The doctor shook his head.

"Not a day earlier. You were stabbed, Mr. Kelly. I don't think you'd want to move around much while you're still healing."

Chin sighed and nodded. His eyelids were drooping and he looked tired.

"Get some more rest," the doctor advised. "I've had patients tell me that time seems to pass by faster when they're asleep. Before you know it, a week would've passed."

Chin smiled sleepily. He reached out towards Kono and she walked forward, grasping his hand.

"Go home and get some sleep on a proper bed," Chin said. "You don't have to worry about me." Kono's eyes watered and she rubbed them, irritated with herself. Chin rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb before turning to the other male members of the team.

"Mahalo for staying and for looking after her," he said. "You guys should go home too. I doubt I'll be a good host today." He stifled a yawn and smiled ruefully.

Steve placed a hand on his leg and smiled.

"We're ohana, brah," he said quietly. "No thanks necessary." Danny nodded in agreement.

"We'll look after 'lil sis here anytime," he added. "You, as well bro."

Chin smiled as he took in the team. Sleep was beckoning, pulling him under and he was finding it harder and harder to refuse.

"Mahalo," he whispered. His last thought before the darkness claimed him again was that he'd finally found a place where he was accepted, where he belonged.

"Hey doc," Kono said as she walked out of Chin's room with him. Steve and Danny had gone ahead to drive the Camaro to the pickup point at the hospital lobby. The doctor turned and looked at her expectantly.

"Thank you," she said. "I know about hospital policy and all the trouble you could get into for letting us stay." The doctor smiled at her and shook his head.

"Wasn't me. I'd have sent the lot of you home, not because of hospital policy but because the three of you were exhausted. What you needed, and still need, might I add, is a hot shower then bed, not a hard-backed chair in the ICU. I wouldn't have allowed it if Malia hadn't been so insistent."

"Malia?" Kono said, surprised.

"Yeah, she said something about Five-0 being the only people he had now that everyone was shunning him. I didn't want to probe further since she seemed to be talking more to herself than to me."

"Why didn't she come down then?" Kono asked angrily. If Malia was so insistent that Chin needed someone by his side, why didn't she come down herself? Oh wait, she'd left him because he was a 'dirty cop'.

"She said something about 'Chin probably doesn't want me there' and some other things. Seems like he pushed her away because he didn't want her to get hurt by all the politics at HPD. At least, that's what she seemed to be mumbling to herself anyway. I don't know what's going on and it's not my business either but I hope it all works out in the end." The doctor offered her guilty smile as if he thought he'd said too much. "Okay, I've got rounds to make. See you later?"

Kono nodded. "Thanks, doc."

The doctor waved before stepping off into another room. Kono walked slowly down the corridor that led towards the hospital lobby. So Chin had pushed Malia away so that her name wouldn't be dragged down with her, just like what Chin did to Kono at the beginning when he'd first been caught up in the problem. Kono had fought back and was still fighting back. She knew that there were a lot of things that he wasn't telling her to spare her, things that she could help with. Somehow, Chin's plans to help others were always either misconstrued or carried out at his own expense.

He'd taken the fall for Uncle so that Auntie could have the transplant she so desperately needed.

He'd pushed Malia away so that she wouldn't have to deal with the problems of being romantically associated with a man whose name was dirt both with his family and with HPD.

Now he'd pushed Kono away and took the knife meant for her and almost died in the process.

Kono sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. The cousins were long overdue for a very important talk.

**Only one more chapter to go!**

**Thank you for reading! :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm actually kinda nervous about posting this chapter because as mentioned in the last chapter, this is the last one. I hope the ending doesn't give the impression that it was written in a rush because it wasn't. All the chapters were fully written before I posted the first one and re-written inside out and upside down. I hope four chapters aren't too short :X**

Chin, being the model patient that he was, was actually discharged after six days instead of the expected one week. To celebrate, Steve had invited the team to a small party he was throwing at his house. Chin had just settled comfortably in a deckchair on the lanai when a small figure shot out of the house and landed in his lap, sending a spike of pain through his body. Chin winced.

"Are you feeling better, Uncle Chin?" Grace asked, her eyes wide. She pinned him with her worried gaze just as Danny strode onto the lanai and reached over to pull Grace out of Chin's lap.

"C'mere, Monkey," he said anxiously. "Remember what I told you? Uncle Chin's still healing."

Grace scrambled back into Danny's arms, horrified.

"I'm sorry!" she cried. "Did I hurt you?"

"Nah, you didn't," Chin lied. The pain had settled into the dull throb that meant it was time for him to take his painkillers. "Come here, keiki," he said, beckoning her over. He helped her settle onto his lap and smiled.

"I'm feeling much better now thanks to those drawings you made me," he said and Grace beamed. "Mahalo."

"I'm happy you liked them," Grace said, suddenly shy. "They always made Danno feel better whenever he was sick or hurt too. I thought maybe it'll make you feel better too!"

Danny gazed at his daughter with unconcealed pride.

"Hey Gracie!" Steve called from the barbecue that he had set up on the beach. Grace perked up at the sound of her name. Chin nudged her gently off his lap.

"Go on," he said. "Go see what your Uncle Steve's up to." Grace nodded energetically and shot off in Steve's direction.

"Sorry 'bout that," Danny said apologetically. He squinted against the sunlight to see Grace bouncing up and down next to Steve who was showing her the huge bag of marshmallows he'd bought. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Chin said as he pushed himself off the chair, grimacing as the dull throb became an aching roar. Danny's hands shot out to steady him.

"Whoa, whoa, you call this fine? You're just like McGarrett. This is not fine."

"But unlike McGarrett, I'm going to go in and get some painkillers. Don't worry, Danny, it wasn't Grace's fault. I was due for some anyway." He waited for the pain to settle back into a throb before heading towards the kitchen. Danny moved to follow him but Chin waved him off.

"Go play with your daughter. I'll be fine."

Danny sighed and nodded.

"If I hear so much as a chair scraping the floor, I'm going to get Kono to tie your ass to a bed for the rest of the month." Danny pierced Chin with a warning look before wandering off to stop Steve from turning his daughter into a hopped-up sugar junkie.

Chin smirked. No wonder Steve wanted to kick Danny out of the house the last time he took a bullet on the job. He made his way towards the kitchen without incident, keeping a safe distance away from the chairs just in case Danny decided to make good of his threat. When he entered the kitchen, he found Kono tearing the lettuce with a ferocity that was quite unwarranted.

"What did the poor lettuce do to you?" Chin quipped as he ambled towards the bag of meds on the counter. Kono jumped and whirled around, a piece of shredded lettuce in her hand.

"Don't sneak up on me like that," Kono snapped. She dumped the piece of lettuce in the salad bowl before grabbing a glass and filling it at the tap. She set it on the table as Chin shook his meds out onto his palm. He picked the glass up, shooting her a grateful smile before downing the pills and gulping down the water. He slouched against the counter as he waited for the medication to take effect.

"You okay, cuz?" Chin asked her. Kono sighed as she moved to lean against the counter next to him. She was silent for awhile, staring out the window as she watched Danny lecture Steve about the appropriate amount of marshmallows little girls ought to consume.

"You shouldn't have done that," Kono said quietly.

"Done what?" Chin tilted his head to look at her, confused.

"Pushed me away. You almost died."

Chin frowned. "You would've almost died if I didn't."

Kono turned to glare at him and Chin froze. She looked exactly like the seven-year-old kid she once was, terrified when she'd lost sight of him at one of the luaus the extended family liked to throw. She was always following him around as a kid. He always looked out for her and that was how things would be, whether Kono liked it or not.

"I'm not a kid anymore, Chin!" Kono snapped. "You almost died! It would've been my fault if you died."

"You know that's not true, Kono," Chin fired back. "What was I supposed to do? Let you take the knife knowing full well it was coming straight at you? What sort of person do you think I am?"

"I don't know! You could've tackled me so we'd both be out of the way!"

Kono's anger seemed to deflate as she slouched against the counter. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"I think you're a person who's given too much and taken too little," she said softly and Chin felt a shudder rise up his spine, the shudder he always felt when they started talking about the one subject he hated to talk about.

"This isn't about Uncle, Kono," Chin said in an attempt to change the topic. Kono looked at him, her eyes holding the glint of determination which usually meant that Kono would get what she wanted and Chin would have absolutely no say in it.

"No, it isn't," Kono said, surprising him. "It's about how you keep taking the fall for people who are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. You have to stop doing this to yourself, Chin. Stop trying to protect the people around you at your own expense."

"I didn't have a choice. Auntie needed Uncle. If he'd gone to jail for taking the money from the asset forfeiture locker, Auntie would've died."

"You don't know that. Uncle made his decisions and as bad as this sounds, he has to handle them on his own. He's a grown man. You took the fall to help him and what do you get? Not only is your name dirt with HPD, no one in the family wants to talk to you or be associated with you because you're seen as the bad guy."

Chin groaned in frustration.

"I don't want to have this conversation. Not now."

"Fine," Kono huffed. "Let's talk about Malia, then, how about that? Let's talk about how you left her to protect her and ended up breaking your own heart."

Chin opened his mouth to interrupt but Kono was on a roll and wasn't going to be stopped.

"Don't say you weren't heartbroken, Chin, anyone with eyes and a working brain could tell. You led me to think that Malia broke up with you because she couldn't stand to be associated with you when the truth is, you were the one that broke up with her."

"She would've been dragged down too, Kono," Chin said impatiently. "You know how big our family is and how wide their connections are. She'd never have gotten anywhere. Just like how you would never have risen up the ranks in HPD if you didn't join Five-0."

Kono slammed her hand on the counter as she turned to stand in front of him.

"Don't do that," she snarled. "Don't make it sound as if you're jinxing everyone just because you exist. If people are too blind to see that you're a good man, then it's their problem. I don't need anyone telling me what sort of person you are, Chin, because I can see for myself. Stop being so damned altruistic. You matter too."

"Kono, I-"

"I don't know what I would've done if you died," Kono said, cutting him off. Tears were pooling in her eyes and she made no attempt to wipe them away. "You're my big brother. I can't lose you."

Chin sighed as he pulled Kono into a hug. Kono let out a choked sob as she leaned against him, careful to not touch the still healing wound.

"I'm sorry, keiki," Chin whispered into her hair because that was what he still saw her as, not the confident woman she had become but the wide-eyed little girl that used to follow him everywhere. "But I can't promise it won't happen again. I don't regret what I did because I can't lose you too. You're my little sister. It's my job to look out for you but I promise I'll at least try to look out for myself as well."

Kono gave a watery chuckle. "I'm gonna hold you to that."

Chin smiled at Kono as she pulled away. He framed her face with his hands and used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. Kono sighed and wrapped her arms around him, savouring the familiar feeling of safety and warmth.

"We didn't finish our conversation about Malia," she said quietly. Chin stiffened.

"Yes, we did," Chin insisted.

"No," Kono's arms tightened around him. "You still love her. I know you do. Why else would you have a photo of her hidden in your wallet? She's still upset and heartbroken by what you did. She was so distracted by it that she spilled everything to your doctor without meaning to. Go back to her, Chin. Both of you deserve to be happy."

Chin looked down at his cousin and felt an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. He'd spent so long thinking about protecting Malia that he hadn't realised how unhappy and heartbroken she was. It was time to make things up to her. Maybe he could ask her out for a cup of coffee. The thought brought a smile to his lips and caused the feeling to disappear. It was time to right some wrongs.

"Okay," Chin said softly. "I will."

Kono took a step back, surprised.

"You will?"

Chin grinned.

"Hey, is everything alright?"

Chin and Kono turned around to see Steve at the door. He looked at them quizzically, arms folded. Kono dragged the back of her hand across her eyes in an attempt to hide her tears. Steve stepped over and peered into the salad bowl. He looked up, alarmed.

"What's wrong?" he demanded, looking from cousin to cousin. "And don't give me any bullshit about being fine. You were supposed to prepare the salad, Kono, not shred it to pieces."

Chin hid a smirk as Kono grinned and shook her head.

"It's alright, boss," she replied, picking up the salad dressing and uncapping it. "It's all good now."

THE END

**I'd like to thank everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited and/or added to story/author alert. Being able to share my ideas regarding one of the awesomest shows on television as well as being able to practice the one thing I love most on this website is one of the best things that has ever happened to me and I'm really happy that I'm able to share this joy with like-minded individuals. **

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**I've got a new Chin and Kono one-shot coming up after this one so if you enjoyed this, do look out for it. I'd like to think of it as unique because so far, I've never seen anyone write about a ten-year-old Kono.**

**See you around (:**


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